1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to monitoring and communication systems. More particularly, this invention relates to monitoring and communication systems for stationary mobile persons.
2. State of the Art
The workforce of today is primarily composed of individuals who lead busy non-traditional lifestyles. In most two parent households, both the father and mother work. In single parent households, the sole parent invariably has to work in addition to nurturing the children. The traditional model of the father going to work while the mother remains at home to care for the children is either a luxury few families can afford, or a choice many parents no longer select.
Many working parents are also discovering that their work environment is changing, becoming more mobile and unpredictable. Salespersons need to be constantly on the road and managers find themselves caught up in unexpected meetings. Many employees are directed to perform multiple jobs often in different locations day to day. As a result, many working adults do not know where they will be at any given time.
This busy and mobile lifestyle is often in conflict with the responsibilities normally associated with being at home, or at least available, for children. Children need to be reminded to take medications, prodded to get dinner started or to feed the family pet, and desire to be contacted about their well-being. In addition, parents want to know about the well-being and security of their children. However, a phone call by a working parent to his or her child to inquire about the safety, activities, and general happiness of the child is often difficult. Most working adults find the task of balancing schedules, calling someone on a daily basis, or just being available every day at the same time and place (to receive phone calls) to be very difficult. While a babysitter is one solution to the situation, a good babysitter can be difficult to find and also quite costly. Moreover, some children may feel that they are too mature to have a babysitter, yet the children may still require some level of supervision. There is a need for a means for supervising children which is cost-effective and which will provide the parent with assurance of the well-being of the child. In addition, such supervision must meet the needs of a mobile child.
Likewise, members of the senior citizen community that live at home can often use, or at least often desire, their children""s or friends"" attentiveness; i.e., a phone call confirming all is well. But for the same reasons, such phone calls can be difficult to make at times when they are needed most by the senior citizens. Moreover, some senior citizens, while not in need of costly care by a human care provider or costly monitoring by state-of-the-art telemedicine devices, are nevertheless in need of assistance to remember to take critical medications and attend appointments.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a monitoring and communication system which can automatically contact a supervised person to ensure their well-being and to provide the supervised person with necessary reminders.
It is another object of the invention to provide a monitoring and communication system which ensures compliance with certain predetermined responsibilities by the supervised person.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a monitoring and communication system which can monitor and communicate with a supervised person at or away from home.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a monitoring and communication system which provides interactivity and a degree of multilevel inquiry.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a monitoring and communication system which can, based upon responses by the supervised person, if necessary, contact a third party.
In accord with these objects which will be discussed in detail below, a monitoring and communication system for monitoring a child, a senior citizen, an ambulatory home-care patient, or another person requiring supervision (hereinafter xe2x80x98supervised personxe2x80x99) is provided. The system includes a personal communication device (xe2x80x98PCDxe2x80x99) carried or worn by the supervised person (e.g., a portable telephone or pager) or at the home of the supervised person (e.g., a home-based telephone) and further includes a computer system which stores a contact plan for the supervised person and which is in two-way communication with the PCD. The computer system, using an automated phone call routine, automatically initiates the transmission of electronic voice messages or inquiries to the supervised person""s PCD. The computer system records responses transmitted by the supervised person""s PCD back to the computer system. The system can contact the supervised person at home or anywhere within a service area, and preferably anywhere serviced by the system on which the PCD operates. The supervised person responds to one or more questions or requests from the computer system by pressing appropriate keys on the PCD or by providing voice responses, thereby transmitting responses. The responses are recorded by the computer system. If the computer system does not receive a response from the supervised person""s PCD or if the responses do not fall within compliance guidelines, the contact plan is forwarded to a staff member for either follow up contact or to provide other assistance. Responses, or the lack thereof, may additionally or alternatively be forwarded to a guardian or third party; for example, in the case of the supervised person being a child, the third party may be a parent of the child.
It will be appreciated that the monitoring and communication system of the invention permits a supervised person to be contacted within and outside the home of the supervised person, as the PCD may be home-based or portable. Therefore, the supervised person is not confined to his/her home in order to respond to a monitoring system stationed in his/her home. In addition, a multi-level inquiry may be established to determine the condition of the supervised person and the details of the inquiry and the responses are stored in the computer system to verify and evidence that an appropriate response by the supervised person to the computer system has been provided. Moreover, the monitoring and communication system is relatively inexpensive, especially when compared with human care givers (e.g., babysitters or nurses) and complex telemedicine systems. Furthermore, the interactivity, and level of inquiry, between the supervised person and the computer system is reassuring to the supervised person.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the detailed description taken in conjunction with the provided figures.